Gen
given name · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/dʒɛn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Gen is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. Recorded meaning: Refractory, obstinate, resist.
- AUAustralia≈1 in 62K(inferred from the name graph)
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 63K
- USUnited States1 in 292K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 253 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 44K (inferred from the name graph)
≈28,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Singapore, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Refractory, obstinate, resist
Sources 2
- Wiktionary
- Schuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)
Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Gen counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | ≈28,000 est. | ≈1 in 50K | — | Gen | 19 |
| NG Nigeria | ≈2,000 est. | ≈1 in 109K | — | Gen | 20 |
| PH Philippines | ≈1,700 est. | ≈1 in 63K | — | Gen | 59 |
| US United States | 1,141 | 1 in 292K | 588 | Gen | 253 |
| MY Malaysia | ≈650 est. | ≈1 in 50K | — | Gen | 29 |
| AU Australia | ≈410 est. | ≈1 in 62K | 1 | Gen | 109 |
| SG Singapore | ≈140 est. | ≈1 in 44K | — | Gen | 34 |
| EE Estonia | ≈21 est. | ≈1 in 59K | 22 | — | 7 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present); Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Gen Nakajimab. 1925JPJapanese actor and seiyū
- Gen Idemitsub. 1935JPJapanese actor and seiyū
- Gen Nakayamab. 1949JPJapanese translator and philosopher
- Gen Nakatanib. 1957JPJapanese politician
- Gen Arakib. 1964JPJapanese novelist
- Gen Takahashib. 1965JPJapanese screenwriter
- Gen Urobuchib. 1972JPJapanese writer of visual novels, light novels, and anime
- Gen Nomurab. 1976JPJapanese historian
- Gen Hoshinob. 1981JPJapanese singer-songwriter, actor, writer, radio personality
- Gen Neob. 1989SGSingaporean singer-songwriter
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 45 sources across 24 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 162 | #109,258 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 155 | #106,477 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 145 | #124,450 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 5
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Gen mean, and where does it come from?
- Refractory, obstinate, resist Recorded by Wiktionary and Schuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007).
- How do you pronounce Gen?
- A machine transcription gives /dʒɛn/ (IPA) for English.
- Is Gen a male or female name?
- Gen is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- In which country does Gen have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 28 thousand people named Gen in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled gen.
- How common is the name Gen?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,141 people named Gen in 2020, about 1 in 292 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Gen?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/genThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Gen”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.